Water, sewer district plans move forward

By Ed Runyan

The township hopes it might get federal infrastructure stimulus money.

SOUTHINGTON — Township officials are moving forward with plans to create a new water and sewer district after preliminary approval from a judge and the naming of three people to serve on the district’s trustee board.

The township has set up a cake-and-coffee reception for 4 p.m. Friday at the American Legion Hall on Warren Burton Road so the new board members can meet area legislators and representatives from the township’s engineering firm and Aqua Ohio, a private water supplier.

Sam Plott, Southington Township trustee, said the three township trustees named the three water and sewer district members at the trustees’ Jan. 2 meeting. They are Bill Horton, Rob Gilanyi and Skip Hanes.

Plott said if and when the district is formally approved by Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, the board will act independently of the township trustees.

Plott said officials hope to complete their work toward creating the water and sewer district by the end of this month, when they hope to submit their working plan to Judge Logan.

The township was given six months from Nov. 13 to submit the plan, Plott said. Judge Logan gave the township preliminary approval Nov. 13.

Among the things a water and sewer district can do, Plott said, is apply for money through the federal government’s infrastructure stimulus program. Officials have plans to apply for that money right away, Plott said.

Southington, which has no public water or sewer systems, is the only Trumbull County township to take steps to form its own water and sewer district, according to Plott and county sanitary engineer’s office.

“We’re so far out on the fringes, there is no relief in sight,” Plott said, estimating that it could be more than 10 years before water might flow into the township if the township waited for the county to provide it.

The township is hopeful that Aqua Ohio will eventually extend waterlines north out of Warren into the township, about 2 1‚Ñ2 miles away.

After recent changes in Ohio Environmental Protection Agency regulations, the township now has some homes with wells and cisterns that exceed limits for arsenic in their water, Plott said.

runyan@vindy.com